How We Helped Our Customer Enter the High-Value rPET Market with a 2000kg/h PET Recycling Solution

Advanced PET Bottle Recycling Line Designed for Bottle-to-Bottle and Premium Fiber Grade Applications

The future of PET recycling is no longer only about processing more waste bottles.

Today, the real challenge for recyclers is producing high-quality recycled PET flakes (rPET flakes) that can meet the strict requirements of high-value applications, including bottle-to-bottle recycling, food-grade PET recycling, and premium polyester fiber production.

For recycling companies, upgrading from conventional PET processing to high-grade rPET production requires more than increasing capacity. It requires a complete recycling system designed around:

· Raw material quality

· Contamination control

· Advanced sorting technology

· Efficient washing processes

· Stable production performance

Recently, RAYFON designed and supplied a 2000kg/h PET bottle recycling washing line for an overseas customer who aimed to enter the high-value recycled PET market.

Through intelligent sorting, advanced hot washing technology, optimized crushing solutions, and high-efficiency separation systems, this project helps transform post-consumer PET bottles into premium recycled PET flakes with higher market value.

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Project Overview

Project Type: Large-scale PET Bottle Recycling Plant

Processing Material: Post-consumer PET bottles

Production Capacity: 2000kg/h

Final Product: High-quality transparent PET flakes

Target Applications:

· Bottle-to-Bottle PET recycling

· High-grade polyester fiber production

· Premium rPET applications

Core Technologies:

· Intelligent optical sorting system

· PET bottle pre-sorting

· High-efficiency crushing system

· Advanced PET hot washing technology

· Cap and label separation

· High-performance dewatering system

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The Customer's Goal: Producing Higher-Value Recycled PET

Many PET recycling plants can produce recycled flakes, but achieving premium-grade material requires much stricter control over contamination.

For this project, the customer was not looking for a standard PET washing line.

The goal was to produce high-grade transparent PET flakes with the quality level required by demanding downstream industries.

The recycled PET material needed to achieve:

· High purity

· Excellent transparency

· Low contamination

· Stable quality

· Compatibility with high-value applications

This required a recycling process that could effectively remove:

· Labels

· Adhesives

· Organic residues

· Bottle caps

· Floating plastics

· Fine contaminants

Based on these requirements, RAYFON developed a customized PET recycling solution focused on product quality rather than simply processing volume.

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PET Whole Bottle Pre-Sorting

Before crushing, the optical sorting system ,manual sorting and sorting equipment identifies and separates unsuitable materials, including:

· Oversized PET containers

· Large PET oil bottles

· Non-target packaging

· Foreign materials

Removing these materials at the beginning helps:

· Improve crusher efficiency

· Reduce contamination entering the washing line

· Protect downstream equipment

· Improve final flake quality

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Intelligent Sorting Throughout the Recycling Process

For premium recycled PET production, one sorting stage is often not enough.

Multiple optical sorting processes are applied at different points of the production line to continuously improve material purity.

Compared with manual sorting, intelligent optical sorting provides:

· Higher recognition accuracy

· More stable operation

· Reduced labor dependence

· Better consistency in final product quality

This advanced sorting strategy creates a cleaner foundation for the following crushing and washing processes.

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High-Efficiency PET Hot Washing System: The Key to Premium rPET Quality

Among all PET recycling processes, hot washing is one of the most critical stages affecting final flake quality.

Post-consumer PET bottles often contain stubborn contaminants such as:

· Adhesive residue

· Label glue

· Beverage residue

· Oil contamination

· Organic dirt

These contaminants can negatively affect:

· PET flake appearance

· Color quality

· Processing stability

· Final recycled material value

To solve these challenges, RAYFON applied its high-efficiency PET hot washing technology in this project.

The optimized hot washing system provides stronger cleaning performance by improving:

· Heat transfer efficiency

· Material contact time

· Mechanical cleaning effect

· Contaminant removal capability

Especially for difficult contaminants such as bottle label adhesives, the hot washing process plays a decisive role in producing cleaner PET flakes.

A cleaner flake means better opportunities for higher-value rPET applications.

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Efficient Bottle Cap Separation Improves PET Flake Purity

PET bottles usually contain PP or HDPE caps and rings.

Because these materials have different densities from PET, effective separation is essential.

The recycling line uses advanced density separation technology to separate:

· PET flakes (sink material)

· PP/PE caps and floating plastics

This process significantly reduces polyolefin contamination and improves PET flake purity.

For customers targeting bottle-to-bottle recycling or premium recycled PET markets, efficient cap separation is a key requirement.

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Optimized Crushing System Ensures Continuous Large-Scale Production

For a 2000kg/h PET recycling plant, stable production is just as important as processing capacity.

The crushing stage operates under continuous heavy-duty conditions, making equipment reliability extremely important.

To improve production stability, RAYFON designed a multi-crusher configuration for this project.

One crusher operates during normal production, while another crusher is reserved as a backup unit.

When maintenance is required, such as:

· Blade sharpening

· Knife replacement

· Crusher inspection

the production line can quickly switch to the backup crusher.

This design provides several advantages:

· Reduced downtime

· Faster maintenance recovery

· Higher equipment utilization

· More stable production output

For large-scale PET recycling facilities, minimizing unexpected shutdowns directly improves profitability.

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